Stemina to receive National Institutes of Health grants

Stemina Biomarker Discovery is getting two National Institutes of Health grants, one of which will let the Madison company start what it called the largest clinical study ever conducted into the metabolism of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The Children’s Autism Metabolome Project, or CAMP, study will involve 1,500 children at six sites around the U.S. Of those, 500 will be children with autism, 500 will have other neurodevelopmental disorders but not autism, and the other 500 will be children who don’t have the disorders, ages 18 months to four years old.

It could take up to two years to enroll all the participants, Stemina CEO Elizabeth Donley said.

Stemina already has conducted three independent studies involving more than 500 children with autism spectrum disorder showing that the Madison company’s technology can identify biomarkers associated with the disorder.

The new, bigger study will be funded through a three-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health as well as a previous $2.3 million investment from the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation. Read more …